Real-life Holiness

Real-Life Holiness

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

Ephesians 4:4-6

It is easy to look at a group of people such as the Amish and consider them more holy than the rest of us. But holiness comes from daily turning to God in every aspect of our lives. It means being willing to change and become more Christlike. Yes, the Amish choose to follow God in their lifestyle, but I can do the same in my life, where I live.

There are more similarities. We have the same Bible. We have families. (Everyone is born into one.) We have friends, if we choose to make them. We have jobs, food, a home, pets, hobbies. And it’s in our attitude toward these things that people see a difference. It’s very possible there is an unmarried New York executive living in a sky-rise who is closer to God than an Amish woman who lives with her husband and ten children and bakes her own bread, has her own garden, attends church, and serves the poor. It’s what’s inside—our personal relationship with Jesus—that counts. The blessing that the Amish have is that the things around them—their community, their church, their ancestors, and their traditions—remind them to nurture the spiritual parts of their souls, whereas someone in a New York sky-rise has to experience God in different areas, in different ways, without being distracted by all the world has to offer.

If you’re a child of God, you should not feel less important to the body of Christ because of where God has chosen to place you. He may have chosen you to change the world in which you live by living out holiness right where you are.

Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that the same Holy Spirit who lives in those I look up to and respect also lives in me. Remind me that, as Your Word says, You are “Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6, NIV).